Pilot Once Flew Jet Now Mounted In Holiday Park

FORT LAUDERDALE — There was the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the Man from La Mancha and another guy who was the Last of the Mohicans.

Then there`s Summitt E. Boone, the Man Who Actually Flew a Military Monument.

You`ve probably seen it -- a fighter jet fastened securely to its pedestal at the Sunrise Boulevard entrance to Holiday Park. For the past 12 years, the shell of the vintage 1953 F-86 Sabrejet has stood as a mute monument to Broward County servicemen.

But when that monument had guts -- 9,200 pounds of thrust that sent it shrieking across the skies over a military base in Baltimore -- Boone was at the controls.

``We didn`t have any of that fancy stuff. This was a pilot`s airplane,`` Boone said of the F-86. ``It was something you could fly and feel. We called it the last of the sport models.``

Boone was a member of the 104th Tactical Fighter Squadron, which flew 18 of the jets, including the one at Holiday Park, more than a decade ago.

Before the North American F-86 Sabrejet, serial number 255, was retired from service and delivered to Broward County for dedication as a local monument, it was based at the Maryland Air National Guard base.

Stationed there was Boone, a young fighter pilot who later became a Boca Raton banker and who is now 41 years old.

When he arrived in South Florida from Tampa in 1981, he had no idea the plane in which he logged 150 flights had been enshrined here seven years earlier. When he got the news, it came from an old military buddy living in Boca Raton, John Van Blois, who also had flown the plane as a member of Boone`s fighter squadron.

``He said, `255 is mounted down in Fort Lauderdale.` I said, `Come on, you`re kidding me.` And he said, `No, come on.` So we jumped in the car and drove down here and there she was, parked right there.``

After that, he often managed to squeeze Sunrise Boulevard into his local travel itinerary and made special trips as well.

``I brought my wife down. I brought my son down. I made a point to come by and look at it, remember old times and think about the people I flew it with.``

In 1982, the plane was getting a coat of paint when ``I just happened to be driving by,`` Boone smiled. He stopped and climbed up the scaffolding with the workers, wearing his suit and tie, and talked about old times for half an hour.

Earlier this year, he participated in the restoration of the plane with new paint and decals, part of the city`s ``Make It Shine`` program.

And the sight of the old bird still floods Boone with memories, mostly of the special camaraderie he enjoyed with other members of his fighter squadron.

``Sometimes, I think my life is in my (flight) log book,`` he said, flipping though its pages.

Boone puts together a newsletter for the other pilots who are living across the country, and he is looking forward to their second reunion.

``To get the kind of training I got, to meet the kind of people I met, all at no cost to me?`` Boone marveled. ``I`ve got to be one of the luckiest people in the world.``